60-Year Plan

Twenty-four hours after he had signed the political and commercial pacts with Austria and Hungary (see p. 14). Premier Benito Mussolini stepped forward on the stage of Rome's Opera House, gave the Fascist salute to an audience of 4,000 of Italy's head men and launched into one of his most boastful speeches. Excerpts: "In this age of plans, I want to lay before you a plan, not for five years or ten years, but for 60 years, carrying on to the 21st Century, at which time Italy will have the primacy of the world. "To the north and west there is little or nothing for us to do. Our future lies to the east and south, in Asia and Africa. Of all the great Occidental powers of Europe, the nearest to Africa and to Asia is Italy. . . . "Italy has held a policy of friendship with Austria ever since the World War and will continue to do so. The Hungarians are a strong people, who merit and will be accorded a better destiny. Our relations with Jugoslavia are normal; that is to say, diplomatically correct, but nothing more. Relations with France have improved generally. "To pretend to eternally keep a nation like Germany disarmed is pure illusion, unless one has the objective of preventing by force of arms Germany's eventual rearmament. This game has a supreme stake--the lives of millions of men and the destiny of Europe."

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